I love writing horror. The grittiness of it, and the power to embroil my characters in dire situations while getting to decide if they get a happy ending. Or not.
When I’m not writing about dark alleys, blood, and monsters from the underworld, I’m usually toiling through a client copywriting project. Believe it or not, these two writing formats do go hand in hand.
For years, I’ve been crafting marketing materials for brands and businesses aimed at attracting the right audiences and making them act, whether that means clicking a link or pulling out their credit cards. And since I’ve been writing horror fiction on the regular, I consider myself a better copywriter than ever before.
Here are three ways my persuasive copywriting has improved since writing horror during my time away from client work.
A Good Story Holds the Mind Still
One of the reasons why I love writing horror is that it keeps your audience’s mind from wandering. The heart rate rises, sweat begins to pour, and the person settles into their seat, committed to the end. In a world of shrinking attention spans, a medium like horror is badly needed. As you read, you’re thinking: Does the main character make it out alive? Or will they suffer a similar fate as the other characters who met a grisly ending?
This same stealing of thoughts works with copywriting, too. And it all comes down to telling a good story.
Whenever I work with a new client, I immediately ask them to tell me their hero story. How did they come to be in the position they’re in? What journey did they take that helped them overcome adversity to settle into a position to serve their clients with aptitude and wisdom? Once I have this story in mind, I treat it very much like a horror story. Here’s what I mean.
With a horror story, you want to introduce the terror early. What makes the main character freeze and reconsider their life choices in the face of the terror that awaits them in the dark? With a client hero story, you want to start in a similar place. That is, you want to begin the story at the very moment the client knew they would be facing their most formidable obstacle, the one that would break most people, but for which they charged on and became the face of the company today.
These same techniques can be used when writing sales copy, web copy, or emails for that matter. Introduce the character and have them hit a wall the reader can relate to, and make the stakes feel real, just like you would in a super dark tale.
Treat Setbacks Like Deadly Weapons
In a horror story, monsters have pointy teeth and sharp claws. The killer wields a knife or maybe a hatchet. The ghost crushes skulls with the chandelier overhead. As the reader turns the page, the moment the claws come out or weapons are drawn, there is no turning back. The main character is fully embroiled in the action. And in the best stories, there is no clear means of escape.
It’s the same with persuasive writing. Except the weapons in this case are pain points. When writing about SaaS software that makes accounting easy, the weapon is the jumbling of numbers that all run together. It’s the swimming vision, the headaches from staring at the screen with little to show for it. Make the reader feel the discomfort by being as descriptive as you possibly can. Just like the main character of a horror story staring down the barrel of a gun, you want the reader to feel as if they’re right there in the action, reconsidering their life choices in real time.
In the Face of Bloodshed, Tease the Escape
In a horror story, the character bleeds after being struck by the weapon. They may have a limp in their step as they search for an exit while being pursued by the killer. The best horror writers tease a route for getting away. The question is: Can the main character make it there in time?
With persuasive writing, the pursuing killer is time running out, or funds running dry. It’s that element that makes all hope seem lost. Take dentistry marketing, for example, where the flow of blood might be a fear of being seated in that torturous chair while a professional pokes and prods around in your mouth with pointy tools. A fear like that might keep someone away from dentists permanently. Your job is to show a way out that gives the reader hope.
By teasing an escape, you might write about a focus on comfort, or a specialization for sedation dentistry, making dental care seem far less intimidating.
Once you’ve hammered the reader over the head with all the descriptive “weapons,” it’s that teasing of escape that makes them see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
So you see, horror writing and persuasive writing are definite first cousins. By introducing interesting characters and dire situations, you could be writing about a killer lurking in the shadows, or a business on the edge of collapse. Treat obstacles like weapons striking flesh, replace blood with sweat, and introduce an escape route that delivers relief. Do that, and you have all the elements you need to make readers care enough to keep going to the very end.
Want writing like this for your own business or brand? Send me a message at info@jasonlittlewriting and we’ll discuss how I can help.
